Of Wallabies and Coconuts.
And so we flew east to the Serengeti (Swahili for ‘the endless plain’).
Our main aim here was to see the Mara crossing, where over two million wildebeest and zebra migrate to Kenya across the Mara river. Expectations were high. We chose the Serengeti Mobile Camp as it changed site depending on the migration.
When we were there, the migration was at its tail-end, having started early this year. Numbers crossing were low (although you wouldn’t think so looking at the photos). This disappointed the bloodthirsty French, as they were hoping to see the wildebeest decimated by crocodiles as we had done back in 2011 in the Massai Mara. As you will be aware, all Frenchmen are hunters, and get up early each morning to kill any local animal life. They then eat much of it raw for their breakfast.
French women also have their foibles. One of Annick’s is to blame me for everything, even when, occasionally, it is not my fault. One example of this is my hearing. When I do not hear what she says, she arranges a hearing test for me. When she cannot hear what I say, she says that it is because I mumble. Harrumph.
Well, this sorry state of affairs was exacerbated on this holiday by the presence of Caroline and Denis, who both speak English with an American/French accent. This, along with my (alleged) hearing problems, did, upon occasion, lead to some confusion.
On of their common mistakes was to pronounce ‘wildebeest’ as ‘wilder beast’. After repeated correction by myself, their pronunciation transmogrified into something that sounded to me like ‘wallabies’. Another tripping point was ‘crocodiles’ which often sounded like ‘coconuts’. Thus my confusion when they described their sadness at not seeing wallabies being killed by coconuts…
We saw a plethora of wildlife, from leopards sleeping and mating (not necessarily at the same time)…
Cheeta sleeping and not sleeping…
Lions sleeping…
Rhino hiding in bushes
Vultures doing…disgusting stuff…
And, well, so much that my camera nearly overheated.
Here' a link to my favourite photos from the Serengetti. (Flickr Album link)
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